Should Helen Thomas Be Fired, Or Be Given A Chance To Clarify Her Statements?

Talk show hosts and politicians say things all the time that are crazy, deranged, and offensive. Helen Thomas, the Hearst White House columnist, has inflamed much of the Western world with her comments that Israel should “get the hell out of Palestine” and “go home” to “Poland and Germany and America and everywhere else.”

Helen Thomas issued the following statement today: “I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon.” (June 4, 2010)

But the outrage continues with calls for her dismissal. TV Newser has a roundup of the reaction.

• Time’s Joe Klein writes today that “it’s not unprecedented for journalists with odious views to have access to the [White House] press room. What is unprecedented is for such a journalist to have a front-row center seat. Thomas should no longer have that privilege.

• Entertainment agency Nine Speakers, Inc. has announced that it is dropping Thomas as a client. The firm “is no longer able to represent Ms. Thomas, nor can we condone her comments on the Middle East.”

• CQPolitics.com blogger Craig Crawford — who’s also a Nine Speakers client — states on his Trail Mix blog tonight that “I concur with the [issued] response from my agent to Helen Thomas’ lamentable remarks about Israel, and will no longer be working with Helen on our book projects.”